Use of the HTML Editor

When editing pages this option enables the use the HTML editor (called the
editor from this point) instead of simple textarea boxes. The editor
allows the simple formatting of text and the easy addition of
"advanced" features such as links.

The editor is switched on by clicking on the box next to Use Editor.
The editor is associated with the items on an individual basis. For
example, switching the editor on for, say, the Response 1 item just
sets the editor on for that item, it does not set it on for all the
Response boxes.

If the editor is required for some of the items of a page, first click on
the Use Editor boxes (They should then contain ticks.) The page is
then re-displayed to activate the use of the editor. This is done by
clicking on the Redisplay Page button at the foot of the page.

Note that care should be taken when using the editor. In most cases it
should not cause any problems. However, it is not recommended for
Answers of Short Answer and Numeric type questions. The editor can
add extra "invisible" HTML tags which stop comparisons
working as expected. Further, the Descriptions in Branch Tables are
used in Buttons and again if they contain any HTML tags this can cause
problems. There are no problems with Answers which are used only for
display, such as those in Multichoice type questions. Again use of the
editor for Response items should not cause any problems.

If a problem is suspected with any of the text items it is quite safe to
switch the editor off (by removing the tick in the Use editor box).
When the page is redisplayed, the "raw" text can then be seen in
the textarea box. The text can be edited as required. In fact, switching
the editor on and off repeatedly for a particular item should not
change the text.

The "state" of the Use editor option is saved with each
item. Thus if a page is re-edited the items which were using the editor
will again appear within the editor.

Finally, the editor is quite "expensive" in terms of resources
within the browser. If items do not require the use of the editor it is
quicker and less prone to resource problems to just use the standard
textarea boxes.